And when she's a little less furry, she looks like this: fav.me/d4bk2ud

Female varg? Yes, female varg, even though I said before there was no such thing. The word of god is contradictory and capricious, as in real life.

Nahual are a South American regional variant of vargr, where they were compared to the most striking native predator, the jaguar, instead of the European wolf or bear - so, "were-jaguar" instead of werewolf, even though they're no more feline than vargr are lupine. To the Olmec, they were gods. In modern folklore, they're bruja, or something in between a trickster and a guardian spirit. In fact they're humans with a souped-up parasite in place of mitochondria who can temporarily take on the form of a predatory ancestral primate.

Compared to the common (ulfhednar) vargr, nahuals are smaller and slimmer, but far more agile, with better reflexes and skill at climbing and swimming normal vargr just don't have. In human form, they are often champion fencers, racecar drivers, mountain climbers, stunt women, kickboxers, skyscraper construction workers and so on. They aren't particularly ladylike - the only reason they change change and other varg women can't is because, like female spotted hyenas, they're absolutely brimming with testosterone. What about male nahual? There are none. The males usually die in their first few years.

Anyways, when painting I usually come up with at least a short biography for characters. This one is very young, probably seventeen or so, and has only been thresholding for less than a year. She's still thrilled to death at being a nahual - she hasn't yet experienced much of the downside. Also, while her ancestry is South American she's pictured here in a Florida downpour.

It's a super-dark picture, and I wanted the focus mostly to be on her eyes and her fangs, but I also tried to pick out enough detail that she isn't just a black blob.

Brilliant work. The anatomy's convincing, the lighting's near perfect and I can almost feel the rain!

You're getting uncannily good at combining the human and the animal and this goes further than just looks - the expression here conveys an intelligence not quite our own. The existence of female varg comes as no surprise to me as I think I've met some in my time!